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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26959771">Up the Waterspout</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/perpetfic/pseuds/FB%20Wickersham'>FB Wickersham (perpetfic)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Horror, Spiders, Supernatural Elements, detailed discussion of spiders, queer horror</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:27:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,894</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26959771</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/perpetfic/pseuds/FB%20Wickersham</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It rains, and it rains, and the spiders find refuge in the trees.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Marley/Louise</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Up the Waterspout</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It rained, and it rained, and it rained. </p>
<p>“The yard is flooded,” Louise said to Marley as they watched it come down the windows. “If it goes on much longer, we’re going to be in trouble.”</p>
<p>“We’ll be fine,” Marley said. “I’m sure we’ll get through this okay.”</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>“We need to move to higher ground,” the mayor said three days later. He made the announcement from inside city hall, the rain too unrelenting to allow him to make the announcement from the steps outside. “Everyone needs to pack only necessities and move to higher ground.”</p>
<p>“What do we take?” Louise asked, staring at the closet and the bookshelves and the cats.</p>
<p>“Clothes and the cats,” Marley said. “A few books.”</p>
<p>Louise stared at her bookshelves, lining the living room. “Which ones?”</p>
<p>“Your favorites.” Marley stopped pulling clothes from the dresser and walked to Louise. She hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. “It’ll be all right, honey. We’ll be okay.”</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>The town moved in a slow crawl, up the hills and out of the town. The water rose and rose and rose, and they had to move to the next town. Then the next.</p>
<p>“It’s been a month,” Louise said to Marley as they drove another long, slow day in the crawl of the rest of the town and the towns that had tried to rescue them. “It’s got to stop soon.”</p>
<p>Marley squinted against the rain on the windshield and hit the brakes a little too hard. “I hope so,” Marley said, and she braked again. “We’ll be okay,” she said, sparing Louise a glance, giving her a tight, tired smile. “We’ll make it.”</p>
<p>Louise looked down at the floorboards. There were empty coffee cups and sandwich wrappers. From the collected trash, a tiny spider emerged, walking over the edge of a coffee cup. Louise lifted her foot to kill it, then paused. It was probably as waterlogged and exhausted as she was. She put her foot back down and watched it skitter towards the door. “We’ll be okay,” she repeated back to make some of the tiredness leech from Marley’s body. “It’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>They drove, and they stopped; they drove, and they stopped. The rain kept coming down. “I don’t think I can do this much longer,” Louise said, hands shaking as they packed the car yet again. “The house is probably ruined.” When Marley didn’t answer right away, Louise turned to her. Marley was crouching by the passenger side door speaking in a whisper. “Honey?” Louise asked, afraid that her tattering nerves would soon be eclipsed by a complete breakdown from Marley.</p>
<p>“I’m talking to a spider,” Marley said. She smiled at Louise, calm and collected. The rain that bounced off her eyelashes glowed in the gray light of the day. “I found it wandering around the floorboards. It looks lonely.”</p>
<p>“It’s a spider,” Louise said, but she smiled, thinking of the spider she’d seen before. It calmed her, Marley’s moment of enjoyment in all the rain and flood and necessary movement of staying out of danger and staying protected. “I wonder how it got inside,” she added when Marley didn’t say anything.</p>
<p>“It probably jumped in to save itself from drowning.” Marley smiled again as she held up the spider so Louise could see it. “Make a wish,” she said.</p>
<p>Louise laughed, an exhausted, wheezy sound. “That’s macabre.”</p>
<p>“Well, I don’t have an eyelash, and it’s good luck. A tiny little spider making it through all this rain.”</p>
<p>Louise kept her eyes open as she blew the spider from Marley’s hand. It spun a thread as it arced away from Marley’s hand, the silk just catching the edge of her sleeve. The spider reached the ground and scurried off.</p>
<p>“Did your wish come true?” Marley asked, shaking the thread from her cuff.</p>
<p> The rain kept falling. “Not yet.”</p>
<p>“Maybe tomorrow,” Marley said, and they got back into the car.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>The rains stopped three days later. There was no trickling finish, no days of stop-and-go showers. The rain simply was, and then it wasn’t. A week later, they were allowed to drive for home. Louise drove them home, over hills and around bends, through detours to avoid the still-receding floodwaters. “Our books are probably ruined. Our furniture. We’ll have to get the cats all new toys.” From the back of the car, secured in their carriers, the cats meowed.</p>
<p>“Maybe not,” Marley said.</p>
<p>Louise didn’t answer right away, concentrating on taking a sharp turn that sent plumes of water cascading up from the back tires. “What if we have to move somewhere else?”</p>
<p>“The insurance will cover some of it,” Marley said, “and we have savings, and besides,” she pressed her hand to Louise’s knee, and Louise glanced over to catch her smile, “you don’t know the house is ruined.”</p>
<p>The house was still there. The porch was soaked through, but inside, the house was dry. Next door, the flood marks wavered up three feet. The neighbors wore paper masks over their mouths as they carried their ruined furniture to the curb.</p>
<p>“How?” Louise asked as she released the cats from their carriers and looked around the living room. </p>
<p>“I don’t know,” Marley replied. “Look, even the books are okay.”</p>
<p>Louise knelt to look while Marley walked outside to get the bags. There were fine white threads on the edge of the shelves. Louise pulled them off, rubbing them between her fingers.</p>
<p> “Louise!” Marley called. “Come see this!”</p>
<p>“What?” Louise walked onto the soaked porch, listening to the soggy crack the boards made. She glanced back at the threshold into the house. The porch boards were absolutely dry an inch before they met the door. “It doesn’t make sense,” she said.</p>
<p>“What?” Marley asked. She was shading her eyes and looking at the edge of the yard.</p>
<p>“I still don’t understand how the house is dry.”</p>
<p>Marley glanced at her. “Be glad it is, okay? Just for today? We can figure it out later.”</p>
<p>Louise glanced at the dry inch of boards again. “I’ll try,” she promised. “What did you want me to see?”</p>
<p>“Look,” Marley said and pointed. </p>
<p>Louise followed the line of her arm. The trees were covered in white, stringy cocoons. “Tent moths?” </p>
<p>“No.” Marley grinned, delighted in her secret knowledge.</p>
<p>Louise squinted at the trees. There were little black dots scattered amongst the cocoons. “Those are spiders. Those are spiderwebs.”</p>
<p>“Isn’t that neat?” Marley asked. “It must have taken them days to cover the trees like that.” She stared at the trees for another minute, then turned away, walking down the stairs to the car. “I’ll unload the whole car if you’ll sort laundry.”</p>
<p>“Sure,” Louise replied, still watching the trees. The spiders moved up and down their webs, and Louise couldn’t look away. “It’s weird,” she said. “Why are they up in the trees?”</p>
<p>“It probably flooded enough in town they needed a place to stay,” Marley said, walking back with a suitcase in each hand. “I bet they’ll climb down pretty soon.”</p>
<p>Louise watched the spiders move. “It’s creepy,” she said.</p>
<p>“I’m sure they’ll be back in the bushes and grass before you know it,” Marley said, putting one of the suitcases on the porch.</p>
<p> Louise didn’t answer. There was a crawl under her skin. She rubbed her hands on her arms and made herself look away from the spiders in the trees, made herself walk into the house and start sorting clothes.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>“They’re still there,” Louise said three days later. She was looking out the front window at the trees. She hadn’t paid them much attention over the last three days, hoping to look out and find them gone, their webs tattered in the breeze. But they were still there, and the webs looked denser. “I think they’re getting bigger.”</p>
<p>“They’re just spiders,” Marley said. “They’ll be gone soon.”</p>
<p>“I think they were in the house,” Louise replied. “I keep finding leftover webs in the corners.”</p>
<p>Marley hugged Louise from behind, following Louise’s gaze to the trees. “Are you sure they weren’t just leftover cobwebs?”</p>
<p>“The ones in the corners, maybe, but I found webs in the sink. The drain wasn’t flowing right, so I unscrewed the u-pipe, and there was just a…gob of spiderwebs in there. Like they’d been shoved down there or built down there.”</p>
<p>Marley shrugged against Louise’s back. “We were gone for weeks. Maybe they got inside and a few of them were stupid. Do you want me to go out and talk to them? Tell them to quit being so weird?”</p>
<p>“That’s not funny,” Louise said, but she chuckled when Marley squeezed her tighter.</p>
<p>“I’ll keep the big, bad spiders from hurting you,” Marley said, and Louise laughed harder as Marley tickled her ribs.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Two days later, as she walked outside to throw out the garbage, Louise caught sight of a bird flying low. She watched its trajectory and gasped when it landed in the trees, fighting against the stickiness of the threads before being swarmed by a hundred black spiders—looking bigger, Louise was certain, than two days before—and becoming just a white lump amongst other, smaller lumps. Something cold shivered through her, and she walked back inside, not realizing until she was back in the kitchen that she was still carrying the garbage bag in one hand. She took it out the back door and over to the neighbors’ dumpster, as far away from the spiders as she could get.</p>
<p> “They caught a bird today,” Louise told Marley as she stirred the soup they were having for dinner. “I saw it flying, and it got stuck trying to get into the trees. They swarmed it.”</p>
<p>Marley walked into the living room and looked out the front window at the trees. “The lump near the top?” She asked, raising her voice so it carried back to the kitchen.</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>Marley walked back into the kitchen looking unconcerned about the entire event. “I’m sure it was a fluke. As long as we keep the cats inside until they leave, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think they’re leaving,” Louise said. “I think they’re getting bigger and more aggressive.”</p>
<p>Marley paused in the kitchen doorway, head tilted in thought. She smiled. “Maybe they’re secretly here to protect you.”</p>
<p>Louise shuddered. “Don’t joke about that,” she said. “It’s not right. They killed a bird.”</p>
<p>Marley’s smile dropped off. “It’s really freaking you out, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>“Yes. It wasn’t…it wasn’t too bad a few days ago, but every time I watch them I feel like they know that I’m there. It’s unsettling.”</p>
<p>Marley nodded. “Okay. Let’s think about it tonight, and tomorrow, we can talk about how to deal with it.”</p>
<p>“I <em>have</em> been thinking about it,” Louise said. “A landscaper will probably recommend just getting rid of the trees, but I like the trees. We planted them when we bought the house. But I’m afraid whatever an exterminator might do could kill the trees anyway, given how thick the spiders are.”</p>
<p> “I really think they’ll leave soon,” Marley said, walking across the kitchen. “Maybe they just need to realize the rains aren’t going to come back.” She paused, clearly considering her next words. “I think it might be for the best. If they’re getting bigger like you say, they may be getting more aggressive.”</p>
<p>“They swarmed a <em>bird</em>.”</p>
<p>“That’s what I’m trying to say. Whatever an exterminator usually uses may not work.”</p>
<p>Louise shivered. “They’re getting bigger, Marley. I swear they’re getting bigger.” Marley hugged her, pulling her away from the stove and wrapping a hand in her hair. “Well, we’re still bigger.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Louise said, but she didn’t feel it. “I don’t know if the exterminator can help, but I think I do want to call one. Just to hear what our options are.”</p>
<p>“Do you want to call now or tomorrow?”</p>
<p>“Tomorrow.”</p>
<p>“Okay, then. That’s what we’ll do.”</p>
<p>Louise pulled away so she could see Marley’s face. “Are you sure? I feel like I’m overreacting.”</p>
<p>“If you want them gone, they’re gone,” Marley said. </p>
<p>Louise smiled, some of the crawling dread lifting from her skin. “Okay. thank you.”</p>
<p>“I want you to feel safe,” Marley said and pulled Louise into another hug.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>The exterminator walked around the trees twice, keeping a wide berth. When he walked up to the porch where Louise was waiting, there were bits of web floating in his hair.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of them,” he said. “And you don’t want to hurt the trees?”</p>
<p>“Not if we don’t need to,” Louise answered. “Are we going to need to?”</p>
<p>The exterminator shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. We can try to smoke them out first, scent the trees with some stuff that usually keeps spiders at bay. If they crawl back, we may have to consider removing the trees then.”</p>
<p>Louise looked at the trees. The spiders were as busy as ever, skittering along their webs, wrapping insects and another bird-sized lump. Louise hadn’t seen them swarm that one. “Shouldn’t they be leaving?” she asked. “The roads are dry. Shouldn’t something tell them to get down and go back to how they were?”</p>
<p>“Spiders aren’t much more than torsos and legs,” the exterminator told her. “They run on instinct. It probably rained so long they don’t have whatever concept of time they used to have, so they don’t know they should have left.”</p>
<p>Louise thought for a moment. The spiders kept skittering. “Let’s try to smoke them out,” she said. “When can you do it?”</p>
<p>“Tomorrow, if you’re around.”</p>
<p>“I’m always around,” Louise said. “I work from home. What time?”</p>
<p>“I can be here around ten.”</p>
<p>“Let’s do that then. Can I write you the check now?”</p>
<p>“If you prefer, sure.”</p>
<p>*</p>
<p> “Like bees?” Marley asked that night as they lay on the couch after dinner.</p>
<p>“Yeah. He’s going to do it tomorrow at ten.”</p>
<p>“It won’t hurt the trees?”</p>
<p>Louise shook her head. “He said it’d be fine.”</p>
<p>“And the spiders will be okay?”</p>
<p>Louise looked at her in surprise. “The spiders are the problem,” she said, sharper than she meant.</p>
<p>Marley shrugged. “I know, but they’re not really hurting anything right now. I mean, I know they’re freaking you out, but I’d hate to think they’ll all die just for being spiders.”</p>
<p>The crawl of dread worked up Louise’s arms. She pulled the throw off the back of the couch and wrapped it around her shoulders. “The spiders should run from it,” she told Marley, “and he said he can tear down the webs and spot the trees with some scents that’ll keep them away. And you were the one who said I should call and see what an exterminator could do.”</p>
<p>Marley scooted down the couch and put Louise’s legs in her lap. “I didn’t mean to make you think I was more worried about the spiders than you. I’m sorry. I just have a soft spot for them, I guess. You know what I’m like when animals do something weird that helps them.”</p>
<p>Louise smiled at a few memories of Marley defending other creatures that creeped out Louise. She remembered Marley talking to the spider and having Louise make a wish. “It’s fine,” Louise assured her. “It’s fine.”</p>
<p>“The trees will be okay, right?” Marley asked, rubbing Louise’s shin. “We won’t have to replant?”</p>
<p>“If the smoke and scent stuff works, the trees should be fine,” Louise said, and she smiled when Marley leaned against her and pulled her close.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>The smoke blew into the house, and Louise closed the windows. “I’m sorry,” said the exterminator, “the wind was blowing the other way when I started it.”</p>
<p>“It’s fine,” Louise said. “It’s a small annoyance if it gets rid of them.”</p>
<p>“I think it’ll work,” the exterminator said. </p>
<p>The smoke continued to blow into the house. Louise sat on the back porch, opposite the direction of the wind, and read a book. Her foot itched, and she scratched it with her other foot. Her foot itched again, and she looked down, wondering if one of the cats had gotten out and was tickling her. There were three spiders on her foot. </p>
<p>“Ahh!” She yelped as she leapt from her chair. She smacked them off with her hand and looked towards the house. </p>
<p>Spiders were crawling from the rafters, from the eaves, from under the back porch. They were squeezing around the back door lock and pressing through a small tear in one of the window screens. They moved past Louise, over her feet, and scurried into the backyard. She stepped backward and heard the crack-snap of spiders being crushed under her bare feet. She ran for the front of the house, slipping on more spiders, feeling the hard, prickly edges of their bodies pressed against the bottom of her feet. The exterminator was sitting on the tailgate of his truck, watching the smoldering fires under the trees.</p>
<p>“They’re…” Louise fought to breathe, scratching at her throat with one hand as she reached for him with the other. “They’re coming out of the house.”</p>
<p>“There’s usually spiders in a house,” the exterminator said. He looked worried at Louise’s frantic movements and stood up. “Are you all right?” he asked.</p>
<p>“No,” Louise said. She grabbed his arm and pulled with all her might so that he would follow her around the house. She couldn’t speak when she got back there, only point and wait.</p>
<p>“That’s…” the exterminator paled and looked for a moment as if he would faint. He swallowed loudly.</p>
<p>“Is that…” Louise gasped for air, the phantom feeling of spiders on her feet making her panic and look around. There were no more spiders on her feet. They were all on the back lawn, half an inch high, teeming like a wave about to hit the shore. “Is that normal?” She asked. “It’s not normal,” she declared. “It can’t be normal.”</p>
<p>“I’ve never…” The exterminator shook his head and looked away from the mass of them, perfect black pearls skittering over the grass and one another. “The smoke isn’t going to work,” he said. “For that many, you have to spray.”</p>
<p>“Do it!” Louise almost yelled. She clenched her hands into fists and scurried along the side of the house as the exterminator walked towards his truck. “You have spray. Spray them!”</p>
<p>“I can’t—” the exterminator got into his truck, slammed the door behind him, glanced into the footwell as if expecting to see spiders crawling up his legs. “I don’t have enough with me.”</p>
<p>“You’ll come back?” Louise asked, the shake at the end of her question making her feel weak. “You’ll be back in a little bit? With spray?”</p>
<p>“No,” the exterminator said. “I won’t. I can’t. That’s—whatever’s caused them to stay here, it can’t be anything natural. Spiders just…they don’t live like that.”</p>
<p>“Then kill them!” Louise yelled over the roar of the truck’s engine. The exterminator sped off down the driveway. Louise stood in the dust cloud and stared as he left, stared at the smoke curling around the trees. She turned towards the house and stopped, unsure what to do. Afraid to open the door and see more spiders everywhere. But the cats were still inside. They could be hurting the cats. </p>
<p>She flung open the front door, prepared for the worst. Nothing looked out of place. The cats looked up, curled into a pile on the couch directly in a shaft of sunlight. Louise walked to them and picked them up, checked them for bite marks, for blood, for signs of paralysis. They wriggled out of her grasp and walked to the armchair, curling up there instead with low, discontented mewls to admonish her for disturbing their nap.</p>
<p>The cats fell asleep, and Louise listened to the quiet, pressed her ear to the wall to listen for tiny, tapping legs crawling between her studs. There was nothing beyond the rush of blood in her ears. She pulled away from the wall and looked around the room. Nothing was out of place. There were no cobwebs in the corners, no spiders on the shelves or floor. Maybe she’d overreacted. The smoke could have gotten into the neighboring house, the one that had been flooded so high. The neighbors had left, the house a complete loss. Spiders had probably taken up residence there. It was dark and damp and probably teeming with bugs. Maybe the smoke had gotten into that house and driven them out. Maybe they’d simply blended in with the spiders from the trees.</p>
<p>Louise stood up and walked to the laundry room. It had a window that looked over the back lawn. The spiders had probably already gone, she thought. The smoke having driven them from the trees, they’d probably continued on. The exterminator probably overreacted because she overreacted. </p>
<p>The spiders were still there, still one on top of another, but tiny silver threads were shooting from them. They were building webs. Louise watched them, unable to look away. The spiders moved in clumps and herds, splitting first down the middle, then into even rows. They began to spin their webs. They began to spin their webs together.</p>
<p>“No,” Louise said. She shook her head and closed her eyes tight. When she opened them, the spiders were still there, still evenly parted, still spinning a series of huge webs as a collective. “No!” she shouted, but the spiders didn’t stop their work. She sank to the floor, pressed her head against the windowsill. Something touched her cheek, and she wiped it away. Something touched it again, and she wiped it away, looking down at her fingers and nearly breaking out into sobs when she recognized the silvery thread of a spiderweb. She pushed away from the sill and saw a line of thread from the edge of the windowsill to the top of the drywall. </p>
<p>The toolbox was under the sink. Louise had put it back after getting out the wrench to clean the u-pipe. She flung it open, tossed tools onto the kitchen floor until she found the hammer. She carried it back to the laundry room, aimed for an inch below the sill, and swung with all her might.</p>
<p>The first hit only dented the drywall. She swung again. On the third try, chips of the wall fell off. She pried her fingers into the gaps they created and pulled outward with two much strength, taking out not just the loose pieces, but the pieces directly below them weakened from her work. They’d put in bright blue insulation when they’d renovated the laundry room. She and Marley had picked it out because they thought it was funny, because it could be a private joke. So different they were, with their blue insulation. But there was no blue insulation to be seen. Just webs on webs on webs. Louise tore through them with the claw end of the hammer, one web at a time. Fourteen layers of web before she could see the insulation. Fourteen layers.</p>
<p>She walked back into the kitchen and sat in the middle of the floor, hammer in one hand, eyes darting around the flat, pink linoleum. The spiders were black. She’d see them coming if they tried to come back in. She’d be ready.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>“They’re out of the trees,” Marley called out when she walked in the front door. “The exterminator didn’t tear down the webs. Did he decide he wanted to charge you for it?” She walked into the kitchen and stopped short at the sight of Louise, knees tight to her chest, hammer in one hand. “Louise?” She dropped in front of her, reached for the hammer, had to pull it hard to get it out of her grip. “Honey? What happened? Did the exterm—”</p>
<p> “They were all over the house,” Louise said. “They came out of the eaves. They had webs in here.”</p>
<p>“What?” Marley shook her head. “Do you mean cobwebs?”</p>
<p>“No.” Louise pushed herself off the ground and walked to the laundry room, pointed to the open space in the wall, to the webs she’d sliced through. “I mean they were in the walls. They came out of the walls, and I broke through the drywall, and they’ve been in here.”</p>
<p>Marley crouched in front of the hole. “That isn’t supposed to happen.” She poked at the webs, and when she pulled her hand away, threads came with her. </p>
<p>“They’re still in the backyard,” Louise said, looking out the window. “They’ve been out there for hours. They’re—they’re building webs in unison, Marley.”</p>
<p>Marley stood up and looked out the window. She was quiet for a very long time. “I’m going outside,” she said.</p>
<p>“Don’t!” Louise grabbed her arm, pressed her fingers into the fold of her elbow. “Oh, god, don’t.”</p>
<p>“It’s okay,” Marley said. She pulled Louise’s hand off her arm slowly, giving her a reassuring look as she did. “I won’t step off the back porch. I just want to look closer.”</p>
<p>Louise reached for her again, trying to keep her grip loose. “Please don’t,” she said. “Please.”</p>
<p>“I’ll stay right next to the wall,” Marley promised. “You can watch me from the window. If I get too close, just tap on the glass, okay?”</p>
<p>“We should just call a different exterminator.”</p>
<p>“We’re going to need to describe what’s happening,” Marley said. “And I don’t want you out there. Not after all this,” she waved a hand to encompass the broken wall and the spiders outside, still spinning their webs.</p>
<p>“Okay,” Louise agreed. She breathed in hard and tried to smile, but it felt tight. “Please, be careful.”</p>
<p>“I will.” Marley squeezed her arm and walked out the backdoor.</p>
<p>Louise watched from the window as Marley edged around the house, back pressed hard against the wall. She watched Marley lean forward, lower half still pressed against the wall. She jumped when the street lamp came on and Marley’s eyes, for a moment, looked inhuman, like they’d been broken into a dozen pieces. She tapped on the glass, and Marley looked over and smiled, walked back inside, back still pressed against the wall. “You weren’t too close,” Louise told her. “I was just freaked out.”</p>
<p>“It’s okay,” Marley said. She looked out the window and shook her head. “I stopped by the library and got that book you wanted,” she said. “I’ll make dinner, and you can read on the couch. Try to push some of this weirdness out of your mind, okay?”</p>
<p> “Why aren’t you scared?” Louise asked. </p>
<p>Marley thought for a moment. “I’m out of the house all day,” she said. “I’m not having to deal with it all the time like you are.” Louise made a choked sound. “Oh, honey,” Marley said and walked to her, wrapping her in a hug. “They’re just spiders,” she said. “I know there are a lot of them and they seem to be acting strange, but they’re still just itsy-bitsy spiders. Maybe they’ve got water on the brain from all flooding, and that’s what’s making them act so funny.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think it is,” Louise said. She pressed her forehead to Marley’s shoulder. “I think something bad is happening.”</p>
<p>“You’re stressed,” Marley said, pulling away. “We had to deal with the rains and then the floods and then we had to come home to a bunch of spiders. It’ll be okay. We’ll find a new exterminator tomorrow, okay? We’ll get this taken care of.”</p>
<p>“Okay,” Louise said. She looked at Marley and tried to smile. “I’m sorry.”</p>
<p>“You don’t need to apologize. You need to rest.” Marley gave Louise a light push. “Go read. I’ll call when dinner’s ready.”</p>
<p>“Okay,” Louise agreed. She walked into the living room and sunk onto the couch, trying to slow her racing heart by breathing slowly. She reached for the library book. It was sticky on the back. When she pulled her fingers away, the tiny threads of a spiderweb glinted in the light. Her throat started to close, but she made herself swallow past it, made herself wipe her hand on the underside of the couch cushion and start reading the book.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Louise had nightmares that night. Waves of spiders overwhelmed her, pulled her down with their tiny, sticky feet. Thousands upon thousands of fractured eyes watched her as she tried to run away, but she was heavy and slow because it was a dream, and she came awake breathing hard, sweat cold on the back of her neck. “Marley?” she whispered. Marley did not answer. Louise turned to face her and watched her sleeping face in the light from the streetlamp outside the window. The light flickered, and Marley’s face fell into shadow, and for a moment, it looked like there were spiderwebs on the corners of her mouth.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>It was cool at dawn. Louise stood outside the door to the laundry room, daring herself to go inside. Marley was still asleep, but Louise had been awake since the nightmares, had watched the sky shift from black to purple to barely pink. She reached out her hand and gripped the doorknob. When she pushed open the door, she stepped back, eyes darting around for any sign of spiders. There were no spiders coming out the door. Louise breathed in deep and stepped into the room, reaching out for the light switch in the dark. </p>
<p>The light flared on, and Louise jumped back against the wall, a scream choked in her throat. All the windows were covered in webs. She could see the spiders scurrying around, could see them pushing against the window screens and the glass. The webs were so thick no light from the rising sun was making it into the room. Louise scrambled out of the laundry room, nearly losing her footing as she ran for the bedroom. “Marley!” she screamed. “Marley! Marley!” </p>
<p>Marley was still asleep, curled to one side and mouth slightly open. Louise shoved against her shoulder, but Marley didn’t wake up. “Marley! Oh, god, Marley. Marley, honey, wake up.” Louise shoved her shoulder again, but Marley only rolled over.</p>
<p>Louise blinked away tears and clambered onto the bed, jumping up and down with all her strength. “The spiders!” she screamed. “The spiders are trying to kill us!” Louise slipped and fell flat on the bed, the wind knocked out of her. She gasped for breath as she reached for Marley again. The dawn light flickered, and Louise stopped moving, terror crawling under her skin as she turned to look out the window.</p>
<p>The spiders ran across the window, their threads trailing behind them. They had to get out, Louise thought. They had to get out immediately, or they would die. “Marley,” she whispered, a hoarse, choked sound. She turned to Marley again. Marley was awake, her eyes open, and Louise felt the last of her hope flash away, felt the crawling horror of everything take full hold of her mind. “Marley…”</p>
<p>Marley’s eyes were split, each eye separated into four distinct sections. A spider’s eyes. “Louise?” she asked. “Honey, what’s wrong?”</p>
<p>“The spiders…” Louise jerked away when Marley reached for her. “Your eyes.”</p>
<p>“My eyes?” Marley blinked again. “My eyes feel fine.”</p>
<p>“They’re not. They’re…” Louise fell off the bed when Marley reached for her again. She crawled backwards towards the door. “Stay away! Get away from me!”</p>
<p>“Louise—” Marley coughed, and spiders fell from her mouth.</p>
<p>Louise pushed to her feet and tried to run. The spiders jumped after her, hitting her like the wave in her dream, pushing her against the wall. “No!”</p>
<p>“They needed a place to stay,” Marley said over Louise’s shout. Spiders crawled into her hair and hunkered down on her scalp, staring at Louise as more spiders pushed her against the wall. “When the rains came, they thought they would die.” They sat on Marley’s shoulders and on her ears, a thousand sentries witnessing the end of everything. “They promised to take care of the house if I helped them.”</p>
<p>The spiders crawled up Louise’s legs. She slapped at them and pushed against the wave of spiders on the wall and stumbled to the bedroom door. She yanked on the doorknob. It wouldn’t open. She looked back at Marley. More spiders fell from her mouth. Spiders were jammed around the doorknob, crowding the latch so it wouldn’t open. “Marley!” Louise yelled and started to sob, collapsing against the door. “Marley, please. Make them stop. Make them quit.”</p>
<p>“They won’t hurt you,” Marley promised, stepping closer. The spiders parted for her, the black mass of them skittering to the edges of the room so Marley could walk through. She crouched in front of Louise and reached for her. “They won’t hurt you. We made an agreement. I would keep them safe, and they would protect you. They could stay here and stay away from the water, and we would be safe, too.”</p>
<p>“No,” Louise sobbed. She curled her hands over her head, felt the spiders crawl up. “I don’t…”</p>
<p>“They weren’t happy about the exterminator, but I explained to them, told them I hadn’t had time to explain it to you, that they would be safe, that we’d all be safe.” </p>
<p>“No,” Louise gasped. She tried to push Marley away, but her strength was gone. Her hands pressed on Marley’s arms, squishing spiders against her skin.</p>
<p>“It’s okay,” Marley said. “It’s fine.” She wiped at the tears on Louise’s cheek and held up her thumb for Louise to see. There were spiders on it. From her face, Louise realized. She was surrounded by so many she couldn’t feel them anymore. “They’re protecting you,” Marley told her. “All they want to do is protect you.”</p>
<p>“I want them dead!” Louise screamed. “I want all of them dead!”</p>
<p>“They won’t die,” Marley told her. “They’ll never die. They’re in us now.” Marley petted Louise’s hair, and Louise felt the spiders crawling against her scalp. </p>
<p>“Make them leave,” she begged. “Please make them leave. We can protect ourselves. We’ve always protected ourselves.”</p>
<p>“We made an agreement.” Marley held Louise’s head in her hands. Spiders rested on her fingernails. “They only want to protect us. It won’t hurt to have help.”</p>
<p>Louise looked at her, at her fractured eyes and the spiders trailing over her body. She watched the flickering light of the spiders building webs outside play across Marley’s face. “I can’t,” she said. “I’m leaving. I have to get away from here.”</p>
<p>“They can’t protect you if you leave,” Marley said. “You have to stay here.”</p>
<p>“No,” Louise said. She tried to pull away, but Marley gripped her arms. The spiders pressed into her skin. Sharp stings flared all over her body. “Make them stop. Make them go away.” Louise closed her eyes against everything.</p>
<p>“Look at me,” Marley said. “I can help you, Louise. They’re here to protect you.”</p>
<p>“Make them go away,” Louise begged and opened her eyes, stared into Marley’s face and felt another sob rise in her throat. “Break the deal,” she said. “Make them leave. We’ll protect ourselves.”</p>
<p>“I won’t,” Marley said, and she opened her mouth. White thread poured from her mouth. Louise put up her hands to stop it, and the sticky thread stuck to her fingers. The thread poured onto Louise’s face and hands and arms. It poured, and it poured, and it poured.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This has been lying about for years, and I take it out and tweak it, and then put it back where I found out, but this round of taking it out feels like the one that finally got all the pieces where I want them. I hope you think so, too.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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